No Republican pays when they go into business for themselves. Specter, Olympia, Chafee, McCain and sometimes Collins work the best deal for themselves, party be damned. Yet ... would Bush imagine blocking that New England Dairy Compact that Jeffords sold his soul to pimp? Would Arlen Specter or Lincoln Chafee be vigorously opposed by a primary challenge?
I ran into my Senator Norm Coleman at one of the Wild playoff games, and I've met him numerous times and I told him how proud I was watching him operate on the Floor and in Public appearances. Then I told him how disappointed I was that his vote defeated the ANWR drilling bill. I told him he betrayed the President, who needed a win badly at that time - he was under seige regarding Iraq etc - when Bush put his time, his support and his office behind Coleman's campaign. Bush won the day for Norm. Coleman said "I promised in the campaign ..." I said "Nobody who voted for you did it because of that pledge. In fact, 99% of your supporters would celebrate your policy reversal."
It's too common. These guys fear their local editorial boards and enviropsychotics more than they do the President, their Party apparatus or their voting constituency.
That lack of party discipline is probably admirable in a principled way, but it's a real deficit when the Democrats are fighting like Hamas bomb throwers who get their orders from Allah through some camel's butt.